Colt finds harder Edge
A TRIP to Victoria may not have delivered the riches trainer Toby Edmonds was hoping for with Alpine Edge but it may have given him something else instead – toughness.
The colt beat only one runner home in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas, taken out by Anamoe, and missed the placings in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude three weeks before.
While the results are disappointing on paper, Edmonds, who trains in partnership with his son Trent, said the three-year-old relished the trip away and is now all systems go for a Queensland winter carnival, which kicks off with Saturday’s Listed Mick Dittman Plate (1110m) at Doomben.
“He had a good experience, a trip away and back has done him the world of good, he is a nice big colt now,” Edmonds said.
“It seasoned him up a bit, got him a bit fitter. It was probably a case of being out rated in the Caulfield Guineas behind Anamoe and the like and he could have been at the end of his tether as well.
“The only race he raced poorly in was the Caulfield Guineas, in the Prelude I don’t think he was ridden that well.”
Edmonds said he resisted temptation to run Alpine Edge over the summer with an eye towards the winter, and is expecting the patience to now pay off.
“There was a temptation to run him in summer but he got a bit crook coming home on the float so he didn’t quite get up, we turned him straight back out and it was probably the best thing for him,” he said.
“We were just on the back foot with him the whole time, he had a temperature and that but he recovered OK.”
Stablemate Me Me Legarde will resume in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas on May 7 after a brief trip to Sydney.